The fifth of nine children, Campbell was born at Port of Menteith and trained as a merchant in Glasgow. After establishing a mercantile firm with his brother James, he established trading links with North America, the West Indies and the Antipodes.
Campbell was a Glasgow councillor for a while, but was better known for his philanthropy. He was co-founder of the Glasgow Night Asylum for the Houseless, took an active interest in the Royal Infirmary, the City Improvement Scheme and the Indigent Gentlewoman's Fund, and contributed £500 for the opening of the Glasgow Botanic Gardens to the public during the annual Fair holiday.
In 1822 Campbell he married Margaret Roxburgh, and their eldest son, James, duly took over the family business. In 1841, Campbell bought the Tullichewan estate in Dunbartonshire.
WILLIAM CAMPBELL was for many years a prominent merchant in Glasgow. He was the fifth child in a family of nine, and was born on the farm of Inchanoch, Port of Menteith, in the year 1793. The family was known in the district by the name of McOran. They claimed descent from the Campbells of Melfort, as has been explained in the preceding sketch, and resumed their old name of Campbell on settling in Glasgow. The father, James McOran, was much respected in the district as a man of upright character and of strict religious principles. The mother was one of the Forresters of Frew, near Kippen, a farm tenanted by her family from the Earls of Moray for more than three hundred years. A godly mother, her supreme concern was that her children should learn to fear God and keep His commandments. A woman of capacity as well as piety, her good influence pervaded the whole family. To her the subject of this short memoir was constantly in the habit of expressing his obligations for whatever sense of rectitude or religious responsibility he possessed through life. He received his education at the parish school, but during his leisure hours, along with his younger brothers and sisters, he herded his father's cattle, and thus his mind became early imbued with a strong love of nature. The mountain and loch scenery by which he was surrounded had ever a fascination for him, and contributed much to form the romantic side of his character. From his paternal ancestors he inherited all the fire and enthusiasm of the Celt and the Highlands, and the Highlanders were unceasing objects of his admiration and interest. He was never prouder than when he donned his kilt, and one of his chief regrets was that he had never learned Gaelic, a deficiency in his education he was wont to ascribe to his Lowland mother.
It was very interesting to notice how the memories of their early home clung to his brother James and to himself during their lives. William used to tell how, when wearied with the weekly toil in the city, they often walked out over the Stockamuir Road on a summer Sabbath evening to refresh themselves by a long, loving look at the beautiful hills of their native country. As they advanced in life these memories came to have a deeper hold on them. Many an excursion was made to their old home from time to time, and nothing roused the old men more to brightness and soft laughter than reference to incidents of their early years at the Port of Menteith.
Early in the century the heads of the family became concerned as to the future of their children, and after careful consideration they resolved to abandon the farm. Their first idea was to emigrate to the United States, and their eldest son John was sent out there as a pioneer. He ultimately settled in America, where his family still remain on his property at Fonda, in the Mohawk Valley, State of New York.
This scheme was, however, abandoned, and the result was that they came to Glasgow. William, quite a youth, soon obtained a situation in the employment of Mr. John Craig, a respectable merchant in the High Street, where he rapidly rose in the confidence of his master, and made many friends. He was gifted with an active and cheerful disposition, ever ready to oblige others, whilst his stern honesty of purpose and clearness of character soon came to be recognized. But his energy, constant and untiring as it was throughout his life, was the most striking feature of his character. He could neither be idle himself nor bear to see idleness in others. Least of all would he stoop to any action which would not stand in the clear light of heaven. He quickly advanced in the confidence and esteem of his master, on whose death he received the compliment of being asked by the widow and trustees to continue the management of the business, though still a youth. After due consideration he declined, and through the advice and assistance of friends, who anticipated for him a successful career, he set up business on his own account, a strong testimony to the manner in which he had conducted himself under the responsibilities laid upon him. But nothing weighed more with him in this refusal than his repugnance to many of the methods of business at that time - prices were left unfixed, transactions were completed only after severe bargaining and great loss of time on the part of both buyer and seller, and even after completion neither party was satisfied with the result. The order of the day was large profits and slow turning of stock. The whole basis of commerce indeed was highly unsatisfactory. It is not too much to say that William Campbell was mainly instrumental in introducing a better system. With the small capital with which his kind friends supplied him he found himself at last free to put into practice his own principles of fixed prices, quick returns, and small profits, and his rapid success was incontrovertible proof of the correctness of his judgment. It was a bold step for a new firm to take, but it was in keeping with honest convictions, and it triumphed. From such small beginnings and with such aims the firm of J. & W. Campbell & Co. took its rise.
Very shortly after William began business, he was joined by his elder brother James. The two partners, though differing somewhat in temper and in disposition, were much attached to each other, and wonderfully qualified to render mutual aid in their arduous work. Their good mother used to say, "I have no fear of them as long as James plans and William carries out."
The first scene of the operations of the firm was in an old tenement in the Saltmarket, too tumble-down to be allowed long to remain. It was condemned shortly after they began to occupy it, and amid all the anxieties of establishing a young business, they had to shift their quarters. New and more commodious premises were built in Candleriggs Street, and by means of additions and extensions from time to time, sufficed for many years. But the increase of business at last compelled them to remove again, and the buildings now occupied by the firm in Ingram Street were erected.
The period at which they started was one of the most propitious for the foundation of such a business as theirs. For not only was the demand for manufactures within Great Britain herself rapidly increasing, but the new development of her colonial empire was opening up a new and extensive field for commercial enterprise. She found markets for her goods in all parts of the world, and dry goods houses especially added to their operations a large export trade. The firm took eager advantage of their new opportunities, and formed valuable connections in Canada and the other British North American provinces, in the West Indies, at the Cape, and finally in Australia and New Zealand. One of the most marked features of their policy was to assist trustworthy business men or firms during periods of commercial depression, and not a few large and prosperous mercantile concerns both at home and abroad can testify to the excellent result of this seasonable aid in tiding them over their difficulties. Scarcely any quarter of the globe but has houses intimately associated with the establishment of J. & W. Campbell & Co.
Immersed as he was in the operations of such a wide-spread business, William Campbell never entered much into public life. He was at one time elected a Town Councillor, but the duties had no fascination for him, and he soon retired. As a citizen of Glasgow he will be best remembered as an example of unbounded liberality and kindness of heart. His purse was open to every good cause. He had intense sympathy for all in poverty or distress, and he could never pass the beggar on the highway. All projects for the elevation of the masses had his warm approval, and public charitable institutions had in him a constant and consistent supporter. He assisted to found and continued to support the Night Asylum for the Houseless, and he took especial interest in the Royal Infirmary, the Indigent Gentlewomen's Fund, and the City Improvement Scheme. But no good work failed to rouse his sympathy and generosity. One instance of the judiciousness with which he gave may be quoted. The Royal Botanic Garden was beyond the power of being enjoyed by the working classes during the Fair week, the very time when the pent-up crowds of Glasgow were able to take advantage of its walks and open spaces, as it was in want of funds. He contributed £500 on condition that it might be open to the public during the great annual holiday. His liberality became proverbial, and, still more, gave a wide stimulus to the liberality of others, as a well-known instance will show. One day he was sent for by a gentleman of high standing in the West of Scotland, who requested an interview with him; he went and found it was a death-bed interview. His friend wished to tell him before he died how much his own liberality was due to the example of William Campbell, and to thank him for it. But in devoting such a large portion of his time and means to the needs of others, he did not neglect the amenities of his own life. In 1841 he purchased the estate of Tullichewan in Dumbartonshire, and afterwards he increased it by the purchase of adjacent lands. This he took the greatest pleasure in improving, a pursuit for which his keen eye for natural beauty and his taste in landscape gardening gave him a special aptitude. Many of his happiest days were spent in superintendence of his improvements, and in the enjoyment of the beautiful scenery that surrounded his new home. Hour after hour he might have been seen wandering from point to point of the landscape, followed by his little Scotch terrier, his constant companion.
The strongest part of his nature was, however, the religious side of it. In early life he had been a warm adherent of the Church of Scotland. But the religious individuality which most deeply influenced his life was Dr. Chalmers. The sermons of that great pulpit orator greatly impressed him, and when he came to know the preacher as a friend, the impression deepened. They formed at last a close and loving companionship. Many a summer day they spent among the trees and glens of Tullichewan absorbed in discussion and communings on the problems of religion and life, and a room in the house was always ready for the great preacher, and hence acquired the name of the "prophet's chamber." Other kindred spirits gathered to him also in his efforts for the extension of the Church, men like the late William Collins.
At the Disruption in 1843, he threw in his lot with the Free Church, and no member of that communion gave more substantial aid or valuable counsel in laying the foundations and overcoming the difficulties she had to encounter. But with all his devotion to such pursuits, no sphere attracted him more than the domestic. He was eminently hospitable and social. At his own fireside, surrounded by his friends, he showed himself at his best; for there his finest feelings and his unusual powers of conversation found fullest scope, and those who were privileged to partake of his hospitality will not soon forget such pleasant seasons of intercourse.
His grasp of difficult problems of religion and theology was unusually subtle, whilst his attitude to them was earnest, and his treatment of them original. He took great delight in discussion, and his ideas flowed so rapidly as often to puzzle the listeners as they followed. On no subject did he kindle into greater earnestness than the importance of the Sabbath, in every view - physical, religious, and social - especially to the working classes. His sentiments on this subject entirely accorded with those of his friend Sir Andrew Agnew, by whom he was much esteemed, and who frequently consulted him on his measures with regard to Sabbath desecration. Though not a great reader of books, he had acquired stores of information, as he had the rare faculty of gathering facts and thoughts from all he met. But dominating all his intellectual gifts and moral feelings his reverence for the Creator and all His works in the natural and spiritual world rose supreme. It was this latter emotion which grew upon him as he advanced in age, and when in the year beyond the allotted "threescore and ten" he came to die, it was this that lingered last on his lips; full of Christian faith and of resignation to his Maker's will, he passed away. One of his sayings within the shadow of death stands above the others in individuality: it is, "My life is like a dream."
But perhaps it is not too much to say that few men have spent their lives in the large civic community in which his lot was cast less like a dream, so practical was his energy, his benevolence, and his piety. He made no enemies, and he left behind him a memory that still stimulates to generosity and benevolence far beyond the sphere of his friends, so self-sacrificing was his life, so built upon a sense of personal responsibility.
In concluding this short memorial of Mr. Campbell's life, it is but fitting to state that on several occasions his friends and the public gave evidence of their estimate of his character, by various presentations, among which may more particularly be mentioned his portrait by the late Sir Daniel McNee, and a very handsome table centre-piece of elegant character, which bore the following inscription - Presented to Wm. Campbell, Esq., by a number of his fellow citizens, as an expression of their esteem and regard for his private worth, public spirit, and extensive philanthropy - Glasgow, 1837.
In 1822 he married Margaret, daughter of Archibald Roxburgh, Esq., who survives him, and who has the happiness of seeing children, grand-children, and great-grand-children around her. His eldest son James, with the aid of junior partners, a son and two nephews, carries on the business of the old firm.
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